It would be seen, he thought, from what he had stated, that the public were placed at a great disadvantage in the contest. In dealing with Patent cases in a court of law there was generally a vast array of witnesses to be examined, consisting of mechanics, chemists, and scientific men of all sorts on one side and the other. Then there were the jury, who knew nothing of the subject, and the judge, who might be placed in a worse position, because he might imagine he understood all about it when he did not. He did not, of course, mean to say that the judge did not sometimes understand it, but it might very easily happen that an ingenious professional witness might so argue the case under the form of giving evidence as to lead the judge to think that he really knew all about it when such was not in reality the fact. Then the bias being in favour of the patentee, the result of such trials almost invariably was, that if the matter happened to be of any practical importance, the public were defeated, after having endeavoured to protect themselves at an enormous expense. He would not enter into minute details, but probably he had said enough to show that a great practical evil arose out of Patent-Laws, and that for this evil there was little or no corresponding benefit. He did not think that we should lose really valuable discoveries if the Patent-Laws were abolished. There might be some rare instances in which particular circumstances might give to particular inventors motives for suppressing and facilities for suppressing discoveries which were not patented. But, assuming that to be possible in some cases, it operated even now, for it was well known that Patents were bought up for the purpose of being suppressed, and it was understood also that inventors were the persons who derived the least advantage from their inventions. His conclusion, therefore, upon the whole matter was that the time had at last arrived—even if it had not arrived some time ago—at which the public interest would be promoted by the entire abolition of the present system of monopoly. [This speech and the succeeding one have been obligingly revised for the press by the speakers.] SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HON. LORD STANLEY, M.P.